Venezuela rivals to meet in effort to end protests

Apr. 9, 2014
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Chile's Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz, left, and Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, executive secretary for the opposition Democratic Unity alliance, speak after a news conference that followed a meeting between opposition representatives and the government at the Foreign Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela. Opposition leaders agreed to a preliminary meeting after being assured by a mission of South American diplomats that the government is open to discussing a four-point agenda it's put forth as a starting point for talks. / Fernando Llano, AP

by Peter Wilson, Special for USA TODAY

by Peter Wilson, Special for USA TODAY

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's government will meet Thursday with its political rivals for the first time to see if they can end weeks of protest that have turned some cities into war zones and left 39 people dead.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro agreed to allow three South American foreign ministers and a representative from the Vatican oversee talks, which will be televised live.

But Maduro maintained his stance that the protesters are terrorists trying to overturn the socialist revolution established by former president Hugo Chávez. He suggested he would make no concessions to his opponents.

"I would be a traitor if I started to negotiate the revolution because that power doesn't belong to me,'' Maduro said in a radio address. "That power is from the revolution, the people, history."

Protests have gotten worse in several cities over the terrible shape of the economy and the increasingly authoritarian rule of Maduro, a former bus driver who latched onto Chávez's rise to power and succeeded him when he died in March 2013.

State controls of the markets and oil industry in Venezuela have hobbled energy production and caused massive shortages in basics goods. Foreign investment has dried up.

Some analysts say Maduro does not sound like someone who is seeking genuine reconciliation with those who disagree with him.

"This sounds more like a reality show than peace talks,'' says David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. "Having the talks televised live will promote posturing but maybe everyone will behave if the Vatican and foreign ministers are present."

Maduro said the talks would be a "debate" rather than a "negotiation."

Leaders of the Democratic Unity opposition coalition said they would demand that the government free all political prisoners and disarm pro-government groups that have violently attacked demonstrators.

They are also calling for the creation of an impartial commission to examine the demonstrations and for government institutions, including the Supreme Court and the election agency, to be autonomous to guarantee the rights of all Venezuelans, and not just of those who support the government.

"Without concessions, the dialogue will fail,'' Democratic Unity Secretary General Ramon Guillermo Aveledo said during a televised interview Wednesday morning.

The coalition had refused to participate in talks until the South American foreign ministers promised that they would take part.

Aveledo's group is a broad but loosely held together coalition of Venezuela's main opposition parties. The Popular Will party, which is one of the largest, has already said it won't participate until all political prisoners are freed.

Protests ignited Feb. 2 when university students in the southwestern state of Tachira demonstrated against soaring crime after the rape of a coed. Security forces brutally put down the initial protest, which led university students across the country to take to the streets.

Since then protesters have demanded that the government take steps to attack crime and remedy the country's growing economic crisis that has stripped supermarket shelves bare of basic necessities such as milk, coffee, cheese, cooking oil and toilet tissue. Some demonstrators have also called for Maduro to resign.

The protests caught the Democratic Unity by surprise, but have been endorsed by Popular Will, three of whose leaders, including chief spokesman Leopoldo Lopez, have been arrested and imprisoned for alleged crimes tied to the protests.

Spain announced last week that it would no longer sell anti-riot gear to Venezuela's security forces, and some U.S. senators have called for sanctions against the Maduro government.

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